Story TIMe

​Huge thanks to Alex Young, one of Tim's ZBT brothers for setting us up with a banger.  This story is great because you get an idea of what it was like starting the Purdue ZBT chapter from the ground up and just a handful of classic "Tim Moments".  Thank you Alex!!!

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• Tim graduated Memorial in 2008, and graduated Purdue in 2012. The class of incoming Purdue freshmen this year will be the class of 2030. By that math, some of these kids were maybe not even born when Tim stepped onto campus for the first time as a freshman. A complete generation has passed at Purdue. So I asked myself, "what would the incoming freshman care to know about that era of time for us at ZBT?" 
   

• I thought about it and went to the ZBT website. Currently there are 166 active undergraduate brothers. When Tim joined, there were 14 brothers. When I joined, there were 22. We didn't have a house, had to hang out off campus, and had to have our chapter meetings at various campus buildings on Sundays so it was free to use. We attempted to have events at a brother's duplex (which was terrible and has been since torn down) at the corner of 5th and Waldron. Sororities either turned us down completely or only sent "small delegations" to our parties, due to the fact we were hosting parties in a 2 bedroom upstairs apartment where the floors caved in, only had one bathroom, and horrible lighting. They'd be kind and stay for an hour and all leave together. To say that didn't hurt our ego as boys, would be lying haha. 
   

• We finally got the house, and we finally now have a space to have chapter meetings "at home", meals together, life together. Finally, we have a place that if cleaned up,we could host philanthropy events, parties, tailgates, and more. Purdue Greek LIfe had a program called "Football Buddies" (probably still does). A fraternity formally asks a sorority to be their "buddy" for the entire football season. Each brother is paired up with one of the sorority sisters for every home football game, and it's a chance to network and make friends/lasting relationships. We decided to go big in our first year and asked Zeta Tau Alpha. We thought these girls were the coolest. But we had to stand out because other fraternities were going to ask these girls to pair up with them the following fall. So we had to figure out how to do that. 
   

• Well as you can imagine, Tim and a few others came up with the idea of taking some sort of famous song (I wish I remembered the song), and come up with custom lyrics specifically for that sorority and for asking them to be our football buddies. Tim naturally brought a guitar and all of us sang this song in the lobby of this sorority to over 100 women. It was nerve-racking to say the least, but they loved it! We got a booming round of applause. But it gets worse! One of the girls yells out "Tell us a joke!", and soon they all start chanting "JOKE! JOKE! JOKE!" I look back as a grown man thinking about how nervous I was, let alone our whole group. We had nothing prepared! Turns out, that is commonplace knowledge we didn't know about at the time. A fraternity does something for the girls, then tells a joke to wrap things up. Silence fell over the room. Who's going to step up? What if the joke is not funny? What will the girls think? 
   

• Tim walks out from the crowd, and tells the smartest dumb joke or the dumbest smart joke I've ever heard. He said, "A skeleton walks up to the bar and sits down. The bartender said, "can I get you something to drink?" The skeleton looks upset and reluctantly says, "Get me a beer...and a mop". (Silence enters the room for what seems to be an eternity) Then 2-3 of the girls say, "I don't get it", "Yeah me neither". No one got that the punch line was that the skeleton doesn't have a body to hold any liquids down, was upset at the mess he was going to make but still wanted the beer, and he wanted to clean up after himself. It was too smart and too dumb at the same time haha. Tim then waves his hand at them and says, "AHHH I tried". The whole room laughed hysterically. Tim's effort was ultimately the joke that won the moment over. 
   

• We continued to laugh all the way back to our house up on the hill, and Tim proceeded to lead a jam session for about a dozen of us for several hours to celebrate. The laughing continued that entire time. Looking back at TIm in that moment reminded me of what it means to be a ZBT, let alone just a good man. We didn't need these girls' approval; we were going to have a good time with ourselves either way! Brotherly Love is one of the core tenets of the fraternity, and Tim is one of the most loved brothers to walk those halls. 
   

• Did those girls say yes to us to be our football buddies that next fall? No. Did they a few years later? Yes. Did that eventual connection lead to anything major? Yes! Marc Conner of Memorial met his now wife, Brooke, from that sorority. Can we say Tim's joke or song creation directly lead to Marc's holy matrimony? No, but it definitely was a great first impression and set the tone for how we were going to operate as a group, and the campus and beyond began to notice. Today we're touted as one of the best fraternities to associate with on campus. We're always one of the largest fraternities now at Purdue and for ZBT internationally. It takes the brotherhood and beyond to make that happen, and Tim's role is too big to fully quantify. 

So to summarize the long story for the class of 2030, I'd say this: "Tim is the guy you wanted around when you didn't know what to do next, because the worst idea Tim was going to have is, 'just have fun, and don't take things so seriously". That moment was a big turning point for the fraternity, but the ultimate learning is that it's the brotherhood that matters most. In this generation, you're going to have moments as individuals or as a group where you don't know what to do next. Let's just hope you have your version of Tim standing by your side to help you do what's next."